Pl. solaria. [L. sōlārium, f. sōl sun. Cf. SOLLAR sb.1]
1. A sun-dial.
1842. Smith’s Dict. Gr. & Rom. Antiq., 487/2. This solarium being made for a different meridian. Ibid. The number of solaria which have been discovered … in Italy.
1880. L. Wallace, Ben-Hur, 142. Lifting his eyes from the solarium set under the aplustre for reference in keeping the course.
2. A terrace, balcony or room exposed to the rays of the sun, now spec. one used for the purpose of treating illness by means of sun-baths. Also fig.
1891. E. Eggleston, Faith Doctor, xxvi. 289. My brother kept a health-lift a few years ago…. But people got tired of condensed exercise, and then he had a blue-glass solarium.
1894. The Voice (N.Y.), 20 Sept. The solariums on the roofs of the houses of the ancient Greeks and Romans testify to the benefits obtained by them from sun baths.
1904. J. Wells, Life J. H. Wilson, xvi. 139. The Church was a sort of spiritual solarium, where men and women of desires could bathe themselves with the hope of destroying evil germs and the wasting fevers of the soul.
